


"because winning is worth every loss"

by gacrux



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Blood Drinking, M/M, Mind Control, Psychic Bond, Vampires, i'll leave the cameos a surprise, it's a weird vampire AU just roll with the punches guys, un-beta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 05:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14993513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gacrux/pseuds/gacrux
Summary: Mingyu and his friends cozy up at a vampire bar and, as per usual, get into a spot of trouble with the law.





	"because winning is worth every loss"

Mingyu's favourite club is on the small side, located on the corner of two equally nondescript streets, the entrance to which is in a back-alley lined on all sides by ruddy brick walls. It is a very well-known establishment to those who frequent it, in part because of the delicacies it serves in the form of blue label whiskys for human attendees, and human attendees for the inquisitive vampire with a taste for liquored blood. The other reason it's well-known is due, of course, to the Game.

 

“I still think it's just over-complicating things.” Minghao complains, reclining in his chair with one foot up on the low table that sits between them. From their vantage point on the second floor, they can look through the ornate railings and watch the club-goers on the main floor dance. They're playing some electronic mash-up song, the bass to which is vibrating through the leather of the couch Mingyu is resting on, one elbow propped up on the arm of it. To his left, Jeonghan is sipping away at a cocktail he ordered an hour earlier, eyes drooping. He hadn't really wanted to come today, but when everyone else decided to go (read: Jisoo, in an unexpected turn of events), he caved and came along anyway. The aforementioned vamp, whose popularity with humans has grown exponentially since he made clear that he doesn't like killing for sport, is sitting on a second armchair diagonal to Mingyu. He looks content to listen to the same argument Minghao and Mingyu have hashed out dozens of times since they started coming here.

 

“That's because you've never really given it a try.” Mingyu retorts, still scouring the crowd below. He's not looking for anyone in particular, although he does spot Junhui by coincidence. Junhui, like Mingyu, has a lot of fun playing the Game with or without a partner. Seungcheol, on the other hand, is down there by himself as usual. He likes flying solo because there's more thrill involved, he says.

 

“Because it's a pain in the ass. Why bother giving yourself blue balls when you can just pick a human up off the street and be done with it?”

 

Mingyu grins knowingly “Can't knock it before you try it. Besides, what would you know? You've got no taste.”

 

“That's rich coming from _you_.” He snaps back, looking less annoyed and more restless. “Look if it's all the same to you guys, I'm gonna go find something to eat.”

 

He stands and Mingyu is quick to do the same, feeling like he's caught Minghao's restlessness. Also, his hunger is hitting its peak and that means it's time to play.

 

“If you guys don't get back before Seungcheol and Jun do we'll leave you behind again.” Jeonghan warns them tonelessly, half muffled by the straw between his lips. It's not an empty threat, they've done that before (and the walk to their shared house several miles away was extremely unpleasant at 4AM by himself), but Jisoo's amused smile suggests otherwise. Most likely Jeonghan will fall asleep on the couch before Seungcheol or Junhui even get back, Jisoo will find another overly-willing human to drink from, and no one will be left behind for being too god damn slow to find their partners in-game. Some revel in the kill, Mingyu revels in the chase. And the chase takes a while sometimes, depending on how coy his partner is.

 

He and Minghao make their way down the stone staircase and towards the bar area. The music is louder down here and almost drowns out the sound of a plethora of hearts beating, some fast, others slow, all music to his ears. He licks his lips, the familiar tingle associated with the feeling of soon-to-be sated hunger working across his gums, sending shivers up his spine. He lives for this part. Minghao, on the other hand, looks more and more irritated as they step up behind another patron in line at the bar.

 

“I saw Jun in the crowd with someone, maybe he'll share.” Mingyu says conversationally. Minghao shoots him a speculative glance and then turns on the crowd, offering nothing more than a belated peace sign as he speeds off. The horde of dancers swallows him up into their midst and Mingyu snorts, turning back to the bar. There are a few rowdy vamps who shove past him to get ahead, but everyone's moving fairly fast; vamps who waited for the early night hype to die down are hungry now, not looking to idle anymore. Mingyu knows the feeling.

 

He flags down a bartender who asks him brusquely what he'll be having, and Mingyu requests a number. The man nods and pulls a gold-plaited tag from somewhere below the bar, sliding it across the counter to him with practiced ease. Mingyu thanks him, looks at the number – _57 –_ and slides it into his pocket. Now the fun can begin.

 

The game at this particular establishment is a hunting game, of sorts. Humans interested in playing take a number from the bar, anything between 1 and 100, and spend their night as they usually would. Vampires, meanwhile, take a number that corresponds with the number a human has. Their end goal is to find the human with the matching number and do any number of things to them, be it drinking from them or fucking them or something else. The first two are the most common, but Mingyu knows there are humans that have been killed playing the game. It's just a risk they accept when they play. The club takes no responsibility for any mild or fatal injuries that the humans should acquire while playing the game – in fact, no one acknowledges the game outside of clubs or bars or other nightly endeavours. It's not technically legal, after all. The Court of Vampire/Human Relations wouldn't allow it because 'potential misuse of the vampiric thrall and/or potential for fatal injury', basically.

 

Which is why it's fortunate that most of these clubs, bars, and other human-vampire mingling locations operate under the radar of the law, and everyone who attends makes sure to keep it that way. Even if it means explaining away undesired injuries on the part of humans. Most of them are thrill seekers after all, and there's nothing more exhilarating than being hunted down by a superior predator. A snitch would ruin the experience for everyone, and has done so on more a few occasions in the past few years. Mingyu fondly remembers another bar, a little hole in the wall not far from downtown, that was shut down because some idiot went to the hospital thinking he was dying (he was, in fact, just thrall-drunk) and couldn't explain the marks to the doctors. The CVR interrogated him and raided the bar shortly thereafter, arresting the owner and several others in the process. Mingyu still misses the place. It was one of his favourites.

 

The energy of the crowd is good tonight. Mingyu can sense it just as well as he can sense the jumping heartbeats of the humans around him, eager and anxious about being in the presence of vampires. It's not like it's uncommon to meet one, but it's also not an every day occurrence for most humans. After all, vampires are nocturnal where humans are diurnal, the CVR's existence both limits and makes human-vampire interaction clumsy, and of course there's the preferred diet of the vampire that makes more than a few humans understandably wary.

 

Whatever. Mingyu's not here to muse over the dysfunctional relationship between his kind and the humans. He's here to play, and to feed.

 

The dance floor smells like sweat, blood, and arousal. The usual, really. He catches a whiff of something that makes his nose curl, but that, too, is the usual. The music picks up again and he finds a girl that's done something rather stupid, but also incredibly daring, in Mingyu's opinion, and mixed some sort of perfume with blood. She smells quite literally irresistible, so he snakes an arm around her waist and pulls her in. She goes willingly, clearly drunk or high or possibly still lingering under someone's thrall, and immediately leans back against him. Her dark hair is braided quite purposely to one side and he sees from over her shoulder that she's got a tag clipped to her necklace. It's not 57, and the bite just under her jaw suggests she's already met her match. Whoever it was got lucky, he thinks. The way she grinds against him suggests she's some kind of fearless. He likes that type.

 

He licks up the side of her neck just to see her squirm and then moves on, leaving her behind in the crowd.

 

The next person that catches his eye is a boy with dark hair and serious eyes, the latter of which glance off Mingyu's under the blue strobe lights. The intensity with which he stares around is almost paradoxical to the relaxed way he's dealing with the girl obviously trying to enthrall him, her hands gripping the waist of his jeans and pulling him close. He seems to be enduring it, like it's some kind of chore. With a bemused smirk Mingyu wanders over and rests his arms over the boys shoulders, feeling the immediate resulting tension like a trap ready to spring. The vampire – one he recognizes, actually – scowls prettily.

 

“I found him first, Gyu.” She snaps her teeth at him, blonde ponytail sprawling over her shoulder.

 

“Get in line, sweetheart.” He simpers, reaching into the boy's pocket – and the boy doesn't so much as blink at this – to reveal a gold-plaited 57. He holds his tag and the boy's between his thumb and forefinger like a pair of cards and grins at the face Momo makes. He likes getting under her skin, mostly because it's so easy to do.

 

“Yeah, well, enjoy it while it lasts, asshole. He's about as much fun as a brick wall.” She says in a huff, just barely audible over the music. Mingyu just chuckles as she turns away and slinks off into the crowd, the tassels on her dress flinging in every direction in her moderate annoyance. The boy turns his head up to get a look at Mingyu and his eyes are just as serious as they had been before. It's still strange, verging on kind of unsettling. It's like he's looking for something in everyone around him and Mingyu can't tell if he's found it yet.

 

The music is loud but it feels like they're immersed in white noise as Mingyu ducks his head to the crook of the boy's neck, breathing deeply. The heartbeat he hears thrumming away is steady, unconcerned with the vampire at his neck. He's totally unafraid. This is a little odd, but nothing Mingyu hasn't encountered before. Veteran 'blood donors', as they have been nicknamed over time, often stop fearing encounters like this until teeth break skin, at which point instinct kicks in. As it happens, they're not Mingyu's favourite type. He finds them kind of boring.

 

Still, this is Mingyu's match for the night. Rising to the challenge, Mingyu raises his head and holds the boy in place with an arm barred across his chest, and peers into his eyes. This immediately begets a reaction: the boy flinches backwards into Mingyu's chest, arms snapping up to try and pry Mingyu's arm away with unexpected strength. He doesn't look panicked, his eyes haven't closed in a (vain) attempt to shut out the thrall, but he's shaking his head very pointedly.

 

“Don't.” He says, voice low. Mingyu can only hear him because he's got excellent vampiric hearing and all of his senses are currently trained on the boy in question.

 

“Why not?” He asks, mostly genuine in his curiosity. Thralls are usually pretty nice experiences for humans, depending on the intent behind it. They can enhance sensations, dull others, clear the mind of any unwelcome thoughts, leave them breathless and uninhibited or whatever. Sure, they can also be decidedly _not_ nice, but vamps in clubs have (mostly) no reason to enthrall a human for less savoury deeds, and the ones in search of that sort of thing wouldn't bother anyway. Takes the thrill out of it.

 

“Just... not here.” The boy says, his grip loosening when he realizes Mingyu has stopped trying to enthrall him. Despite the offer he still seems slightly more on edge now than before, and Mingyu gets the impression that he's actually the exact opposite of a veteran. It would make sense if he was new to this particular clubbing scene; it would also explain his weird reactions to things other humans eagerly embrace.

 

“Okay. Lead the way.” Mingyu replies, sliding his hand down the boy's arm before letting go entirely. It earns him and odd look, one Mingyu can't read for shit. Just another oddity, his supposes, and follows the boy as he weaves through the crowd towards one of the back doors. The immediate silence of the outdoors leaves his ears ringing a bit, but he hardly notices. Minus the distant orange hue of the streetlights it's pretty dark, and it leaves the boy's face cast in attractive shadows. He looks like he belongs there, staring up at him with eyes of the same colour.

 

“What's your name?” Mingyu finds himself asking, stepping forward.

 

He takes so long to answer Mingyu thinks he might be considering giving him a fake, but then the boy's lips turn up at the corners and he says: “Wonwoo.”

 

Ah. Well shit, he's got the nicest smile Mingyu's ever seen. It sends a sharp pang of predatory hunger through him and he's got Wonwoo backed up against the wall in seconds, one hand in his black hair, the other pressing his shoulder to the cool brick. The smell is strangely intoxicating. Maybe it's just the hunger, but something about this boy has Mingyu practically vibrating out of his skin to get at him. His teeth graze the surface of Wonwoo's neck, he can _feel_ the blood thrumming below the surface (his heartbeat is leaps and bounds more erratic now), when several things happen at once: Wonwoo claps a pair of bracelets – no, _handcuffs,_ what the f – to his wrists, says “I _told_ you not to enthrall me” with a great deal of annoyance, and then from the mouth of the alley approaches two figures clad in black.

 

“Cutting it pretty close this time, Wonwoo.” Says the dark-haired one, grinning spectacularly.

 

“Would've been easier if he hadn't put me in a thrall.” Wonwoo mutters.

 

Mingyu finds his voice for a moment just to inform him, “I was _not_ enthralling you! Also, what the fuck is going on?”

 

Wonwoo shoots him a look of suspicion out of the corner of his eye. Mingyu can hardly look away,

 

The blonde one pipes up now, saying, “Give it a rest. You've been caught, you're going to be imprisoned for probably ever, the end.”

 

Mingyu's jaw drops incredulously.

 

“What!? Are you kidding me? I know speakeasy games aren't technically legal, but you'd have to arrest the whole fucking place if you're going to arrest me! Oh wait, shit, is that what this is? A raid? God damn it, my shitty luck strikes again.” Mingyu complains, covering his eyes with his hands to really absorb the reality of the situation for a moment. He's going to _kill_ whoever snitched. Actually, no, he probably won't because he's going to jail, apparently. His eyes are closed but he hears the blonde turn a minute distance to address his partners.

 

“Wonwoo.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“See, I don't really want to ask this, but given what the vamp's just said I feel compelled to do so anyway. Are you _absolutely_ sure this is the right guy?”

 

Mingyu peels his hand off his face and looks up at the trio of CVR officers. Wonwoo looks down at him, at his feet, and then purses his lips in far too much thought. The blonde one groans in defeat.

 

“One job, Wonwoo! You had _one_ job! Get the guy tagged with 57! It was so simple even Sana could've done it!”

 

“Okay, hold on, hold on. He _has_ 57, Soonyoung, I swear. Right?” Wonwoo looks down at Mingyu now for confirmation. Seeing perhaps the best option to clear his name, Mingu shakes his head.

 

“Absolutely not. Got the wrong guy. No 57s here, not even-”

 

Wonwoo makes a face at him and, just like before, moves before Mingyu can even process the situation. In the back of his mind Migyu recognizes the speed at which this guy operates is kind of impossible because he's outpacing a creature of the night, enhanced reflexes and all, but Mingyu couldn't avoid him even if he wanted to. He's handcuffed, after all, and the cuffs are made of silver. Too much movement and he'll slice his own wrists right open. Wonwoo crouches down in front of him and roots around in his jacket pocket, tossing the tags he retrieves at Soonyoung.

 

“See?”

 

“So... he _is_ our guy?” Soonyoung glances down at him and then across at their otherwise uncommunicative third partner. Said partner shrugs at the both of them and they're back to square one, but this time it's Wonwoo who shakes his head.

 

“Don't think so.” He says, glancing at the backdoor to the club. “We're dealing with a vamp who consistently – maybe even obsessively – enthralls his victims. This one barely tried. He doesn't match the profile.” And his eyes are back on Mingyu again, contemplative and shrewd. These CVR officers really are of another breed. The blonde sighs into his hands after a moment and holds his hair off his forehead.

 

“Okay, alright, just for kicks let's assume he's _not_ our guy. Where does that leave us?”

 

“Well, that leaves us out here and our serial killer in there.” The dark-haired CVR officer informs them all with a helpful grin, pointing at the club. It's a look that fades in seconds.

 

“Seokmin, radio for backup. Right now.” Soonyoung orders. The third officer nods sharply and darts off towards the mouth of the alley, presumably to do just that. The blonde turns to Wonwoo next and motions brusquely at Mingyu. “Cuffs off. He's gonna help us.”

 

Wonwoo pauses for the briefest of moments before nodding. He offers a hand that Mingyu is too bamboozled to take, so instead he just yanks the vampire up by the arms. He has a key – thank god, those things were getting uncomfortable – and the cuffs slide off and back into Wonwoo's pocket. Mingyu's mind chooses that moment to catch up with the strange turn of events.

 

“I'm gonna help? How do you expect me to do that? And _why_ do you expect me to do that?” He's not upset. He's definitely not pouting. No chance.

 

“You're going to do what we ask if you'd prefer to avoid jail time.” Soonyoung responds, distracted by the speedy approach of their third. “Anyone nearby?”

 

Seokmin nods and says, “Hansol. No clue where his partner is, didn't ask either. He'll be here in just under ten. I told him who we're looking for and that we'll be inside when he gets here.”

 

“He knows it's a Q-5?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Good.” Soonyoung turns back to them and, having thoroughly ignored Mingyu's complaints, proceeds to order him around. “Vamp, we're looking for a blonde male who appears to be in his early 20s, between five and a half and six feet tall, no significant tattoos or birth marks, goes by the name 'V'. Wonwoo, he's your fuck-up, so you keep an eye on him.”

 

“I'm not a bloodhound, I can't just sniff him out!” Mingyu complains. Wonwoo elbows him in the side for some reason and Mingyu glowers back; Soonyoung just quirks his eyebrows and heads for the back door, Seokmin in tow.

 

“We'll go left, you guys take right. If he's not on the main floor we'll rendezvous at the stairs and send a pair up there to flush him out.”

 

And then the flashing lights and ear-rattling music is back, more distracting than ever. Wonwoo keeps a grip on Mingyu's elbow to prevent him from slipping away as they weave through the crowd, eyes peeled for someone young, blonde, and tall-ish. It's a pretty tall order because more than a few people in the club have their hair dyed blonde. Mingyu is in the middle of mentally lamenting the CVR officers' lack of forethought and inexplicably bad timing _every_ time when Wonwoo jerks to the side, pulling Mingyu with him.

 

“What?” He snaps, looking around. Wonwoo grabs him by the lapels of his jacket and makes him face forward, away from whatever he's looking at over Mingyu's shoulder.

 

“Don't look, he's over there. I don't want him to run. He'll run as soon as he sees the handcuffs.” Wonwoo murmurs into his ear in order to be audible over the music, but not loud enough for his target to hear. Mingyu resists the urge to glance, just barely.

 

“What does it matter?” He asks with a roll of his eyes. “If he runs I'll just catch him.”

 

Wonwoo turns a speculative stare on him.

 

“That requires me trusting you to actually do that, and not just run off the minute I let you go.” He says.

 

“Like I'd risk being arrested for noncompliance?” Mingyu scoffs, nose brushing the side of Wonwoo's head. He smells so good, and Mingyu is still absolutely starving, god damn it. He fights the urge to chomp down right over the pulse in his neck even though Wonwoo's heartbeat is practically singing to him. Self-control is a thing he never really got the hang of. When he pulls back a scant inch he sees Wonwoo appears unconvinced. He sighs. “Look, you people aren't exactly known for being merciful. Like sure if I pull a runner now I'll be taking the easy way out of this situation, but who knows what might happen in the future? If you ever find me again, you'll arrest me on the spot. I know you will. It's just how you people are. Never forget, never forgive, or whatever your slogan is.”

 

“'Never forget, never surrender'.” Wonwoo corrects him blithely.

 

“Yeah, _what_ ever. Point is, I'm not gonna run.”

 

Wonwoo stares at him a moment longer, head tilted up in their close proximity. Mingyu's eyes flutter, hands clenching at his sides. Okay. The urge to enthrall is far, far too tempting. He rolls his shoulders and opens his eyes to stare at the ceiling, lights, second-floor balcony, generally anywhere but at Wonwoo, while he waits for the ultimatum.

 

Eventually, Wonwoo nods.

 

“...Okay.”

 

“Okay?” Mingyu clarifies, still staring at the lights.

 

“Yes. Now look to your right and you'll see a blonde in a black sweater. He's the one.”

 

Mingyu does so. The boy in question (and really, he has such a boyish face) is blonde with obvious blue colour contacts in. He's smiling in a way that looks perfectly genuine despite the protruding fangs, and his eyes are oddly gentle. He's extremely attractive, Mingyu notices, and the human he has enthralled is hanging all over him.

 

Wonwoo takes him by the chin and makes him face forward again.

 

“I'll approach from the right side. He'll flee left. All I need is for you to stop and subdue him until I get the handcuffs on. Then you're more or less free to go.”

 

Mingyu nods. Wonwoo moves to the right, Mingyu migrates a a bit to the left, directly in between their target and his closest exit. He keeps an eye on both of them but makes sure to look thoroughly distracted by the human girl near him. Which, to be fair, he kind of actually is. He's so hungry he can hear his heartbeat speeding up, saliva pooling under his tongue, much to his chagrin. He wonders why the urge is so strong now, when it wasn't before and never has been quite so – pressing.

 

It's lucky he's got good hearing – he just catches the tail-end of Wonwoo telling V he's under arrest when the man bails, running full-tilt (which, in terms of vampiric speed, translates to Pretty Damned Fast) in Mingyu's direction. Feeling particularly angry over being delayed his feeding so long, Mingyu reaches out and grabs the back of V's jacket, yanking hard as he passes. The blonde stumbles and whips his head around, and – he's grinning.

 

Well, Mingyu thinks, that doesn't bode well.

 

“Kim Mingyu!” V says through his exceptionally friendly grin. Mingyu startles because he's not sure how this weirdo knows his name, but it can't be for anything good. “You're going to turn around right now and feed on that officer friend of yours, like I know you want to. Okay, friend? Consider it a favour. I'll owe you one.”

 

“How-” Mingyu begins, and then he's doing exactly as V asks. He's totally under a glamour, he knows he is, but the realization comes like ripples under water, so distant and unimportant that he hardly notices it. He turns, makes eye-contact with Wonwoo (he's seeing his veins, split, blood spilling delicately onto his tongue and sliding down his throat, all warm and sweet and), and Wonwoo knows _immediately_.

 

He's fast, almost supernaturally so, but Mingyu is faster now. He means business, so all his senses are kind of turned up to eleven. He doesn't so much run as leap at Wonwoo, grabbing his wrists before the officer can grab his taser or gun or any other weapon inevitably stowed away on his person. Mingyu is breathing so loudly he's practically hissing, following Wonwoo each step he backs away. No one notices them, or if they do, they don't care. Not entirely surprising, it's a club where vampires are actively encouraged to hunt humans after all. Game or no, no one's going to care if they see a vampire backing a human into a wall and pinning it there with no small amount of force.

 

Wonwoo, for his part, tries quite valiantly to evade him. He can't wrench either of his wrists free but he does kick out, to no avail. Mingyu stomps on his foot (bones, bruised), sticks a thigh between his legs and snarls at him. Wonwoo grunts but doesn't otherwise make a sound, and then goes still. Good. He'll stop fighting. He'll bear it. It's just another risk of the job, one he knew he was taking when he entered the force. Wonwoo knows this. Mingyu knows he knows this. If he wasn't glamoured to shit he would realize he's just tapped into a telepathic link with a fucking _CVR officer,_ but it matters not. Not now, anyway.

 

He presses his open lips against Wonwoo's neck, breathing deeply through his mouth. Smells just – heavenly. Maybe it's his hunger, it's _probably_ his hunger, but he's almost dizzy with the scent of Wonwoo's skin. Pressing his teeth into the junction where Wonwoo's neck and shoulder meet, Mingyu clamps down until he feels blood spurt forth into his mouth. He slips his teeth free after a moment of savouring the feeling – tearing the skin only lightly, but Wonwoo grits his teeth all the same – and sucks the blood from the wound in great, feverish gulps.

 

One beat, then two; Wonwoo's fingers scrape against the top of Mingyu's hands as he feeds, not quite in protest. His grip hasn't loosened and Mingyu doesn't plan on letting it, but Wonwoo seems to be growing less affable as the moments pass. In response, Mingyu holds him down more firmly. (more detail)

 

It's not until his heart slows down to a reliable one-two beat that Mingyu really understands: this wasn't his idea.

 

He pulls away sharply; Wonwoo wheezes at the loss of, probably, the dizzying warmth that most humans feel upon being bitten. It's to do with the glamour, which Mingyu imagines was cast upon the both of them. By V. That little shit, he thinks, stepping away and immediately mourning the loss of contact. He likes cuddling, sort of, after feeding. It's just a thing he does. Humans usually like it too, assuming they're amiable and _not_ a CVR officer.

 

Wonwoo, who happens to _be_ a CVR officer, looks decidedly shaken. He takes a moment to compose himself and then strides past Mingyu, not pausing to look at him. Mingyu, against his better judgment, follows him. He's curious. V must have gotten away, but there's a scuffle happening at the entrance to the place, and a small crowd has gathered. Of humans, mostly – the vampires are turning tail, he sees. Sting operation revealed, he imagines.

 

“Wonwoo!”

 

It's the third officer, Seokmin, approaching. Wonwoo pops his collar just enough to cover the bite, though his hand shakes. It's fine, Mingyu thinks. Seokmin isn't the most observant officer in the precinct, and – wait, how does he know that – he's distracted by the commotion.

 

“Hey, target juked us.” Wonwoo announces flatly. “You get him?”

 

“Well, no, not us.”

 

“Hansol?”

 

“Not even Chwe, that prodigious brat.” Seokmin says, sounding rather affectionate despite his choice of words. The crowd clears slightly as the excitement winds down, and Mingyu sees a – a boy? He's standing over V, whose hands are behind his back, cuffed in silver, and there's the faintest curl of a smirk to to this kid's lips. In his right hand he holds his regiment-issued taser, tapping it idly, and his left is curled into his pocket. He looks so casual Mingyu almost has to do a double-take to confirm he's even part of the CVR. He must be, though, because Wonwoo and Seokmin are cross-armed and staring. Clearly they recognize the guy.

 

“So the other star prodigy on the force finally makes his appearance.” Wonwoo comments after a long while, sounding faintly amused. V is wrestled up by the prodigy in question and marched out the door in cuffs, expression unreadable. There's definitely history there, Mingyu thinks.

 

“I thought Jeongguk was posted up North.” Seokmin says absently.

 

“He was for a while from what I heard. Guess Namjoon's office needed him to track down some Q-level target there.” A beat passes. Seokmin and Wonwoo exchange a sudden, knowing glance with one another. Mingyu, personally, doesn't get it, and says so. Wonwoo startles like he forgot Mingyu was there, hand immediately going to his neck, hovering over the bite. Mingyu feels kind of – _just_ a little bit – guilty.

 

“You should probably get out of here.” Seokmin tells him.

 

“What? Why? I cooperated, didn't I?”

 

“Alright, I'll spell it out for you: you may have helped us, but you're still a vamp, and you admitted to being a participant in the game. Also, Soonyoung is gonna be pissed that no one from his squad gets to take credit for the catch. He might decide to take you instead if he's feeling particularly-”

 

Mingyu holds up a placating hand and replies, “Say no more.”

 

Seokmin grins widely, making little shooing motions with his hands. Wonwoo, meanwhile, watches him with a keen eye. He looks less angry than Mingyu expected, considering Mingyu bit him pretty good. He wasn't overly gentle, either. Glamours have that effect, he supposes. Still. He turns to leave and doesn't make it more than five steps when he feels a determined little tap on his shoulder, and turns to face Wonwoo.

 

He waits, not impatiently, for Wonwoo to say whatever it is he's going to say.

 

“This meant nothing.” He is informed sharply.

 

“I know.”

 

A beat passes.

 

“We were both glamoured. V is – his glamour is unique. It works on other vampires, not just humans.”

 

“I kinda gathered that, yeah.” Mingyu tells him, cocking his head. There's something very careful about Wonwoo's phrasing now, and it strikes Mingyu as a little odd.

 

“So it meant nothing.” Wonwoo says again, more firmly this time.

 

“Right. Are you trying to convince me or yourself here?”

 

This, it seems, is the last straw. Wonwoo finally frowns slightly – he looks _really_ good, he can't help but notice – and turns on his heel. Mingyu lets him go because A) he knows Seokmin was serious and he doesn't feel like getting cuffed in silver again, and B) he gets this bizarre but unshakable impression that he'll see Wonwoo again anyway, in the future sometime. It surprises him, of course, but Mingyu is nothing if not calm in the face of danger, so he makes a beeline for the stairs, hoping his friends are still lounging where he left them.

 

(They're not.

 

Mingyu walks home with the taste of Wonwoo's blood behind his teeth.)


End file.
